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Taking on the Bristol Half Marathon

It’s race time for a lot of mamas in the TMR community and for many of us it will be our first race or first race at a particular distance.

Eeeeeeeeek! Nerves, excitement and feelings of ‘can I do it?’ are all pretty familiar to anyone racing for the first time. Our lovely community member Cat is prepping for the Bristol half marathon on September the 15th. She will be surrounded by a sea of TMR love; Bristol HM is a popular event in our community and sight of TMR tops flying along the portway is such a motivator! We hope Cat’s story will help many of us get over our ‘first race nerves’ so that we can have a positive and uplifting race experience.

‘So, I am Cat. I’m a full time mum/carer to my autistic 12yr old son and 20 month old daughter. I also suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome and my main symptoms include constant pain, stiff joints and random numbness in hands/arms and feet/legs.

I love everything about running. During – gives me a buzz from the physical exercise and also often seeing people sat in cars and feeling so free! After – the buzz of the adrenaline rush and endorphins produced by the run.

I found TMR after a friend told me that there was a Facebook group that you could arrange to meet up with to go for a run with other mums. I love so much about TMR. The support, the togetherness of the Facebook page. The amazing women who give up their own time to help other women get out on social runs. The social runs. The seeing other people in the TMR tops and shouting out to them and getting big smiles from a distance.

I am training especially for Bristol Half Marathon in September and I’m really hoping I can get in done in just under 2 hours. I am also doing Severn Bridge Half Marathon and Two Tunnels 10k both of which are in August.

My main inspiration for entertaining Bristol half was Bristol 10k and how much I loved that. But also that I am trying to raise a little bit of money for Bristol children’s hospital so thought running both the 10k and the half would be a good way to do it.

My preparations have been to continue on as I have for a while. I run 20-30miles a week with a mixture of 5k runs and 10+k runs. I do group and solo runs and try to run in different places if I can.

My top tip would be to build up to the distance slowly but surely, mix in some hills and some flat. Don’t panic just slow and steady. It took be about 6 months to build from 10k to the full 13.1 miles so don’t be scared to take time.’

Cat, you are an absolute inspiration, we can’t wait to see you at the Half Marathon on the 15th September.